Mumbai, Dec 27: The Bombay High Court vacation bench on Tuesday refused to intervene in the matter of arrest of Former MD & CEO of ICICI bank Chanda Kochhar and Deepak Kochhar and has asked them to approach the regular bench when the court re-opens after vacation.
Chanda Kochhar, the former CEO of ICICI Bank, and her husband Deepak Kochhar were detained by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday in connection with a case involving alleged irregularities in a loan of more than 3,000 crores made to the Videocon Group while she was in charge of the private sector bank.
Chanda Kochhar requested an urgent hearing, which the Bombay High Court turned down today. The pair was instructed by the court to appear before the judge on January 2 for a regular hearing. They approached HC challenging their arrest by CBI.
Bombay HC vacation bench refused to intervene in the matter of arrest of Former MD & CEO of ICICI bank Chanda Kochhar & Deepak Kochhar & has asked them to approach regular bench when court re-opens after vacation
They approached HC challenging their arrest by CBI in a loan case pic.twitter.com/0d1MFYK3yT
— ANI (@ANI) December 27, 2022
A Mumbai court had granted Chanda Kochhar and Deepak Kochhar three days of CBI custody, which they had petitioned the Bombay High Court to overturn. The investigation agency is questioning them at the moment.
The Kochhars argued in court that their detention was unlawful because, according to Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, a sanction was required in order to launch an inquiry. The agency in question did not have such a sanction.
The CBI also detained Videocon Group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot yesterday in connection with the ICICI debt investigation.
The Kochhars and Dhoot were listed as defendants by the CBI in the FIR filed in 2019 under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC sections connected to criminal conspiracy, together with Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics Ltd., and Videocon Industries Limited.
The accusations in the case state that Venugopal Dhoot reportedly invested 64 crore rupees in NuPower Renewables as payment in exchange for the bank giving the Videocon group a loan between 2010 and 2012.
According to the CBI, a committee of which Kochhar was a member approved the loan. She abused her position and received ‘illegal gratification/undue benefit through her husband from Dhoot for sanctioning 300 crore to Videocon.’
